NASA's real 'Gravity' photos

In honor of "Gravity" winning the Oscar for best visual effects, the American space agency posted a gallery of many shots that could have inspired the hit film.

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McCandless in space

This evening, to celebrate the best visual effects Oscar for "Gravity," NASA put up a gallery of photographs that could easily have been inspiration for the hit film.

In this 1984 image, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless II, was photographed further away from his space ship than any other astronaut in history. He was able to do so thanks to the Manned Manuevering Unit or MMU, a nitrogen jet propelled backpack. He was 320 feet from the Challenger orbiter.

Photographing from inside the cupola

In this 2009 photo, astronaut Andrew Feustel is using a foot restraint at the end of the Space Shuttle Atlantis' remove manipulator system in order to move a component being used to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope.

Tools in space

This photograph of astronaut Sunita Williams won the 2011 SAVE Award. In it, Williams uses a pistol grip tool on the ISS during the first of three 2007 spacewalks. She and a fellow astronaut reconfigured a cooling loop for the Destiny laboratory module, rearranged electrical connections and secured the starboard radiator of the P6 truss after retraction.

Spain and Portugal

Retrieving a power tool

Another SAVE Award-winning photo, this image depicts astronaut Steven Smith retrieving a power tool while he stands on a mobile foot restraint at the end of the Space Shuttle's remote manipulator system.

Sun rises over the final Shuttle mission

Panoramic

In this panoramic photograph, the Space Shuttle Atlantis is seen in front of the ISS' solar array, and Earth in the background. In addition, the Aurora Australis, or the Southern Lights, are also visible.